Unified Communications Evolving As Networks and Services Transform
August 17, 2016
By Laura Stotler
TMCnet Contributing Editor
The unified communications and collaboration (UCC) spectrum encompasses a broad range of technologies and solutions. Long before mobility and the BYOD trend dominated the technology landscape, UC was an evolving concept, and solutions offered a variety of separate, but not always integrated ways to communicate
The concept of UC gave rise to instant messaging and its now prominent use in the workforce, as well as features like click-to-call and find-me/follow-me. With the uptake of WebRTC and OTT technologies and solutions, UC is becoming truly unified and integrated, and businesses are beginning to realize its myriad benefits.
“The benefits were clear,” wrote Blair Pleasant and Jim Burton (News - Alert), co-founders of UC Strategies, in a recent CIOReview article. “Companies that have implemented UCC solutions have found enhanced employee productivity, improved customer service with higher customer loyalty and retention, faster problem resolution, better communication with partners, suppliers, and customers, shorter product development cycles and faster time to market.”
The benefits from improved call accounting and reporting are clear as well, since UC offerings provide a holistic view of how communications services are being used and pinpoint areas of abuse or services that may be streamlined. The result is that companies can cut costs and boost employee productivity and efficiency with proper call accounting and reporting used in conjunction with UC.
According to Global Market Insights, the global UC market will reach a whopping $96 billion by 2023, with the total number of mobile subscriptions expected to surpass 9.5 billion by then. Uptake of hosted applications and services is expected to boost the UC market, with hosted solutions set to bring in more than $49 billion in revenues by 2023. The UCaaS market will drive overall growth, encompassing everything from telephony to enterprise messaging and videoconferencing technologies.
UCaaS and CPaaS pioneers like GENBAND (News - Alert), with its Kandy platform and Nextiva, which offers cloud-based UC and VoIP services, are helping UC evolve to its next stage of development and growth. GENBAND recently discussed integrating network transformation strategies and NFV into its offerings, while other companies are incorporating artificial intelligence and analytics into their solutions. As the technology world broadens, UC and its diverse group of solutions will broaden to include an exciting array of innovative new features and services,
Edited by Stefania Viscusi